Station-indicator



(No Model.)

HACKNEY & 3.. GFHUDS'ONL STATION INDICATOR.

Patented Nov. 29,1881.

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ATTORNEYS.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. HACKNEY, OF LARAMIE COUNTY, WYOMING TERRITORY, AND EDWARD G. HUDSON, OF LINCOLN, ILLINOIS.

STATION-INDICATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 250,236, dated November 29, 1881.

Application filed May 12, 1881.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we,W1LLIAM H. HACKNEY, of Laramie county, Wyoming Territory, and EDWARD G. HUDSON, of Lincoln, Logan county, Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Station-Indicators; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of the device with one side of the case broken away. Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the line a; a: of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow. Fig. 3 is a detail view of the adjustable wheel and its shaft.

The object of our invention is to provide a means for indicating, for the benefit of the passengers, the cross-streets of a city railway or the stations of a railroad-route.

Station-indicators for this purpose have heretofore been invented in which-is a belt or ribbon bearing the names of the cross-streets or stations printed in regular succession, which belt is from time to time wound upon a shaft, so as to show a different station through the opening in the box in which the mechanism is contained. These general devices we'employ in our construction; but our improvement consists in the peculiar means for reversing the movement of the ribbon when wound up, for which purpose we place an intermediate shaft between the two shafts carrying the belt or ribbon, which intermediate shaft has a cogwheel adapted to engage with cog-wheels on the ribbon-shafts alternately by the lateral shifting of this intermediate wheel, the wheels on the ribbon-shafts being set in different planes to permit this action, and the intermediate wheel being shifted by the longitudinal movement of the shaft, which is held by a latch entering one of two circumferential grooves in said shaft.

Our improvement also consists in providing the gear-wheel which drives the ribbon-shaft with a set of tappets or projections, whose length is equal to or greater than the throw of said shaft, and combining therewith a springarm bearing a hammer, and a bell adapted to (N0 model.) I

be struck thereby, so that every time a change is made in .the indicator the passengers are notified of the same by a stroke of the bell, as hereinafter fully described.

In the drawings, A represents the box or casing in which the mechanism is contained. This box has a slot or opening in one side, through which the indications appear, and the box itself is placed at some point in the car where it can be seen by the passengers and operated from time to time by the conductor or other authorized person. Within this box, above and below the opening, we arrange in bearings in the sides of the box two shafts,

B B, connected to both of which shafts is a belt or ribbon, G, which carries the names of the streets or stations. This ribbon may be wound upon either ofthese shafts, andit passes in front of two rods, to a, near the edges of the opening in the case, which rods distend the belt or ribbon.

Upon the ends of the ribbon-shafts B B, but arranged in different planes, are rigid gearwheels D D, through which motion is transmitted to the shafts to wind the ribbon.

Between the two shafts B B is arranged an intermediate shaft, E, bearing a gear-wheel,

F, which gear-wheel is of a size to mesh with either the wheel D or D, according to the plane in which itrotates. This wheel is rigidly fixed to its shaft E, and the latter has elongated 8o bearings, which permit it to slip endwise the required distance to shift the wheel F from one gear-wheel, D, to the other, D. For rotating the intermediate shaft, a crank, hand-wheel, or other device may be used. For holding the shaft to its two adjustments, it has two peripheral grooves, b and c, in it, into either of which a latch, 07, on the side of the case may drop, according to the position of the shaft, and lock it against endwise movement. These devices, 0 it will be seen, afford means for turning the belt or ribbon in the opposite direction when,

at the end of the route, it has all been wound up on one shaft.

Instead of shifting the intermediate shaft 5 with the wheel F, we may, as a modification, arrange the wheel F so as to slide on a square shaft or a shaft having a feather on it, and ad just this wheel by a sleeve or otherwise, instead of moving the whole shaft.

For calling the attention of the travelers to the change in. the indicator, we fix to the side of wheel F a series of arms or tappets, e, and.

combine with it a spring-arm, G, bearing a hammer, j, which arm is struck bythe tappets, deflected, and then released every time a station is reached, so that the hammer strikes a bell, H, affixed to the side of the case every time the ribbon is turned, and by the same movement which shifts the ribbon. The arms or tappets e are made of a length equal to or greater than the throw of the shaft, which en ables us to place these tappets directly on the wheel of the adjustable shaft without passing out of the range of the bell-arm in the two adjustments.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a station -indicator, the combination,

with the ribbon, the two shafts, and the cogwheels arranged thereon in difl'erent planes, of an intermediate shaft bearing a cog-wheel, the said shaft being made with long bearings and provided with grooves 12 and c, and a latch, d, for the endwise adjustment of the said shaft,

substantially as described.

2. In a station-indicator, the combination, with the ribbon, the two shafts, and the cogwheels arranged thereon, of an intermediate longitudinallyadjustableshaft,havingawheel, F, provided with tappets e, of a length equal to or greater than the throw of the shaft, the spring-arm hammer arranged to be struck by the tappets, and a bell arranged to be struck by the hammer, substantially as and for the purpose described.

WILLIAM H. HACKNEY. EDWARD Gr. HUDSON.

\Vitnesses:

7M. W. JEFFREY, J. T. RUDOLPH. 

